Allergan, Mohawk Tribe request rehearing in sovereign immunity IPR case

Allergan plc (NYSE:AGN) and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe filed a petition on Aug. 20 for an en banc rehearing of their patent case in front of the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). A three-judge panel ruled in July that the tribe cannot assert sovereign immunity in an inter partes review challenging patents on Restasis cyclosporine, affirming a February decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) (see "Court Denies Appeal in Mohawk Case, Clarifies IPR's Role").

Allergan transferred six patents on the dry eye treatment to the tribe in September 2017 in a bid to shield the patents from the IPR process. The tribe in turn filed a motion requesting that PTAB, an administrative body within the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, dismiss petitions from three generic drug companies that are trying to use IPRs to invalidate the patents (see “More on Sovereign Immunity”)...